Winchester’s most famous son is Alfred ‘The Great’. Alfred became ruler of the west Saxons after he and his brother defeated the Danish Vikings at the Battle of Ashdown. In 871 at the tender age of 21, Alfred was crowned King of #Wessex and established #Winchester as his capital.
@StephenMor49371 I believe so and wouldn't read too much into Burnham's win in terms of Reform's support. Yes we know Labour was likely to edge it, but the margin of victory was maybe due to a protest vote against Starmer. If it means the latter is removed from office, I'm not too disappointed.
@28virgo@andy4makerfield@AndyBurnhamGM He was piss poor last time around as an MP. Nothing has changed. He's as bad as Starmer,if not worse. Anyone voting for him needs their head examined!
🚨 Serco - the government contractor that runs large parts of Britian's immigration and justice operation - has taken the extraordinary position of saying it would oppose Reform's plan to deport illegal migrants from Britain.
Having read the Telegraph's report making this claim, I have written to Serco's CEO asking him to urgently clarify their position.
Serco is the firm the Home Office uses to deposit unvetted men from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq into British housing estates without the knowledge nor consent of local residents.
Serco is the firm that launches huge bids for rental homes, outbidding local residents by such a vast amount that lifelong residents - including veterans - have been served eviction notices by landlords. All to house illegal migrants.
Serco has expressed no moral concern about any of this.
Yet they apparently take exception to our plan to actually uphold immigration law and remove those who break it.
Moreover, if the Telegraph's reporting is correct, a company so enmeshed in the British state it even runs recruitment for British Armed Forces, says it will take a hostile position to a duly elected Reform government.
If the Telegraph’s reporting is correct, the only reasonable interpretation of Serco’s position is that it now believes itself to be an alternative power base to the duly elected government of the United Kingdom, and is willing to act contrary to the interests of the British electorate.
If this were true, a Reform government would be left with no choice but to view Serco as a threat to national security.
I have given Serco until 6pm to clarify their position.
Should they fail to do so, we will take the following steps to decouple the British Government from Serco:
1) On forming a Government, we will initiate an accelerated review of all Government contracting with Serco with the aim of removing Serco as a public contractor within our first Parliamentary term.
2) Where Serco has breached contracts or break clauses are available, we will terminate those contracts and continue to exercise break clauses as they come due.
My full letter below 👇
I just don't get the interest and enthusiasm for Burnham. He was awful as an MP last time around and don't believe he'll be any better now. Definitely gets a 👎from me